Our College

Welcome to St Andrews Lutheran College

What is important about any school is what is at its heart. The College’s Mission Statement: ‘Celebrating the Gospel, Nurturing the Individual, Empowering Lifelong Learners’ stands as a firm statement about what St Andrews is on about, and has been at the heart of our College since its beginning.

St Andrews strives to provide a high quality education in a Christian context. We value a holistic approach, and encourage students to develop values that enrich the intellect, nurture the spirit, develop social responsibility and create healthy lifestyles.

Located on the southern end of the Gold Coast, St Andrews has beautiful views of the Tallebudgera Valley. Our modern campus is growing all the time, opening a brand new state of the art Library Resource Centre for the Middle and Senior School in 2009, a highly functional Multi-purpose Hall in the Junior School in 2010, and a superb Covered Outdoor Learning Area in 2012. In the middle of 2014 the College opened ‘The Learning Hub’, a learning space in the secondary school that makes a clear statement that learning is our core business. The Learning Hub in its design incorporates the best of formal and informal learning, of independent and collaborate learning, of ubiquitous anywhere, anytime learning, and of visible learning. As well as learning spaces ‘The Learning Hub’ also incorporates a new Tuckshop with indoor and outdoor eating areas for students to come together to eat and build their sense of belonging and connectedness. Our Early Learning Centre offering Pre-prep and Junior Kindy opened at the start of 2015. With its well-equipped modern learning and play spaces for experiential and play-based learning the ELC provides stimulating and flexible opportunities to play, develop and learn that are second to none. It truly is a child-centred facility. In 2016 we are undertaking a total refurbishment of the Junior School including doubling the size of the library and the creation of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) room specifically for Junior School. In 2017 we will open new Secondary School facilities for music, dance and highly innovative Business Studies labs, as well as a 300+ seat Theatre. For the first time in our 23 year history, we commenced the year with more than 1200 students.

St Andrews is a school that seeks to provide an environment where each person is valued and accepted as a child of God. Each is challenged to discover, develop and use their gifts and abilities for personal growth and service to others. We hope that the enriching and fulfilling opportunities experienced in our community stay with students for life.

Our three sub-schools: Junior School (Prep-Year 6); Middle School (Years 7-9); and Senior School (Years 10-12) means that teaching and learning is tailored to the developmental stage of students. The Junior School, using the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Program (PYP) as its framework places a strong emphasis on developing both the fundamentals of numeracy and literacy, as well as critical inquiry skills. Middle schooling methodology, covering a broad curriculum, is practised in Years 7, 8 and 9 to guide students through those early adolescent years. Encouraging students to take responsibility for learning enables them to move towards being independent learners in preparation for senior schooling. Senior School students select a pathway that reflects their academic and vocational needs. Information communication technologies are integrated across the curriculum for all year levels. Both the Middle and Senior School use the renowned teaching and learning framework known as Dimensions of Learning to facilitate a constant focus on student learning.

The staff of St Andrews are motivated by a genuine sense of helping each child realise his or her potential. As a learning community our staff are engaged in ongoing professional development and refinement of our programs to ensure that we are improving the quality of learning experiences available to our children and young people.

St Andrews is widely regarded as a caring school. We place a high priority on pastoral care. In recent times we have begun to implement Positive Psychology, an approach that seeks to proactively build well-being and resilience. Our staff work hard at developing nurturing relationships with students because encouraging and affirming relationships lie at the heart of effective learning.

A strong sense of community and belonging can be found at St Andrews. We enjoy strong parental support and involvement, and seek to work in partnership with the parents of our students.